DARKNESS The bed time story
by Hearns
Summary: Based in rpgingmaster's universe between P.A. and P.A:G, Darkness tells a bedtime story to a NeoGene who can't sleep of the events of his and Angelus' lives. Most of this is origin and back story of Darkness and Angelus. REVISED:  NOW WITH 2.0 ACTION GRIP


DARKNESS – The Bed Time Story

By Shannon Hearn

(Edited and Revised By Rpgingmaster)

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This story was given to me as a challenge by Rpgingmaster to write a Darkness POV story in his universe.

This story is part origin tale and review of events to Rpgingmaster's Witch Blade Universe. I am keeping this work as close to the Witchblade, Darkness and Angelus lore as closely as I can.

This story takes place during the time skip between Priori Addendum and Priori Addendum Gaiden. So the forces that used to hang out in the Other Realm such as Yagi and Nora and a few others are now on Earth. So I decided to illustrate a day in the life of the Other Realm as the transition for the kids who are returning and those who are staying because they want to stay with the only family that they have known.

Be warned of some serious sexual innuendo references being used in this story.

This is Darkness and Angelus we are talking about here folks. Sex and Violence tend to go together with them.

Well on with the story.

Hearns

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Note: Please read on 1/2 screen setting that FF. net has to make this more readable on the screen for your viewing pleasure.

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Darkness walked through a construct that had been made for the Neogenes so that the girls would have a place of privacy to sleep and rest in after the Thirteen noticed the sheer numbers of girls living in the Other Realm. The idea of a harem of young, nubile, fully armed, highly trained females being at their command, bundled with rampant hormones, coupled with what he and Angelus looked like, not to mention the fact most of the Neogenes were lesbian or bisexual, was worth a few laughs. _"In fact",_ Darkness mused, _"The Thirteen must have crapped themselves at the thought of myself and Angelus having an army of this size at our disposal" _

Over the past few months since Masane had broken down the walls of this prison (which ironically was because the Thirteen left a soft spot over Tokyo in their doorway to the null void that was the Other Realm, and Masane's heroic sacrifice caused a blast of magical energy so powerful it ruptured said soft spot, freeing them from their dimensional shackle), he had seen his love Angelus go from the bloodthirsty praetorian blood shedder to the goddess of light he had always believed her born to be. To wit, this meant he saw her a loving yet stern woman who could fiercely angry like a mama bear at the thought of harm coming to her children, but at the same time could be quite loving to those selfsame kids. This was true of her present interactions with the Witch Blade (their child, though that hadn't always been the case at times). But, anyway, Angelus had become more motherly when they had taken in the former Neogenes, and like a mother, she worried about all of them, especially one of the older ones who had returned to Earth, and rushed into a relationship with a man whom both he and her had found suspect.

Sure enough, she was later dumped. Shiori and her friend Kallen had to help the girl through a tough night, which mostly it involved the girl drowning her sorrows in two tubs of chocolate flavored cool whip, a jar of cordial cherries, half a bottle of chocolate syrup, a third of a can of almond sprinkles, half a bottle of candy rainbow sprinkles, two bottles of European carbonated mineral water and five aspirin.

And, thankfully, it got better. Dante Long of the Thirteen heard what the jerk did and promptly tracked the guy down (with Asagi playing camera girl), damn near broke his ball sack with a well timed kick, and as the bastard writhed in pain, told him how much a despicable asshole he was, which had prompted Angelus to pay him a visit later to thank him. Later, one of Kallen's friends, who had recently lost his girlfriend through a random act of violence (non ExCon related) befriended and helped the girl through this hard time. The guy must have folded a ton of origami frogs for the girl, due to the girl in question finding frogs absolutely adorable for some reason (which could probably be blamed on Aoi introducing her to the joys of the character Kerropi the frog from Hello Kitty), which apparently turned the trick and got her depression to finally lift.

Angelus, upon hearing of this, assumed human guise, tracked the guy down, introduced herself as the girl's mother (ironically calling herself Ms. Tenshi [Ms. Angel]), and after a brief talk with the boy, who confessed his attraction to her daughter, she gave her blessing to the young man, who swore he wouldn't harm her daughter in any way, and after telling him she'd be holding him to that (and getting Shiori to surreptitiously check in on her from time to time, just to make sure), she took her leave. The boy understood that she had superpowers given the way that the lights around the rooms boosted the brightness levels by a factor of 10, so figuring that she must be one of the other super powered beings that were being rumored about by various websites that followed the Witchblade's exploits, she politely confirmed this and the boy understood that he would be the best boyfriend to the girl and that she helped him fill the void of his most recent loss with love. Something Angelus fully understood well in remembering the lives of her previous bearers and the love they had for those close to them.

In fact, it was that side of Angelus that Darkness found rather attractive when the two of them hadn't been trying to brutally screw over/kill each other.

Over the centuries, though they were never married, they had an on/off again relationship. Most of the time it was them trying to influence their child's decision of what side he would take in the course of this world. But now, after spending years in this place and being forced to watch what their actions had wrought, it was enough to force a major sigh from his lips.

It didn't help that his past actions had involved trying to score with his kid's hosts over the centuries, and the large number of maidens that he had taken advantage of through his earthly vassals. But being banished for the time they had for their abuse of power on the mortal world, had quite literally put the two of them through nuclear grade couples counseling. Darkness knew that Angelus and he still had a lot of work to do in the relationship department with their offspring. But family life had made them understand that they needed each other, that for light to exist, it needed darkness and for darkness to exist it needed the light. It was quite literally finding the balance as it were between their Yin and Yang. This was especially crystallized after they got to see the children Furumizu had twisted (and the results of his bastardized parody of child rearing, to put it mildly) had pulled him away from his philandering ways and made him loyal to Angelus, and similarly pulled her away from her blood and guts knight templarism, and forced the two of them to realize they were both parents, and when the opportunity to reconnect with their child was open to them, they decided to extend that largesse to those children that had suffered, and in retrospect, being seen as a benevolent father was far more palatable than being seen as a philandering bastard, though he still couldn't stop the thoughts of what he and his light giving foil would be doing later….

That all came to an end when he saw one of the Neogenes walking around after her bedtime. For some of the girls, insomnia was a little price of putting their minds back together. Boy some of them were a mess. A few they had to let go back and be reborn in the cosmic scheme of things. Others were borderline that still needed work that was in the salvageable department; well they did tend not want to sleep.

And it looked like he had another one to deal with.

Mostly they just needed a shoulder to lean on and talk to before they went back to bed. Nora and Yagi were great at this stuff.

Looking at this one, she was in what most had started to call "Sleep Armor". Well considering that everyone short of him and Angelus were nearly naked, seeing the occasional girl in a bodysuit or well chainmail bikini walking around in the middle of the night tended to make things interesting about this time of night. He wondered what Angelus was up to right now, but given that she was on the same late night bed count on the girls. He hoped that things were going easier for her.

Walking over to the girl he noticed that her armor was a bodysuit so at least he didn't have to deal with a girl gone _au'naturel_, which he was getting used to but was still slightly uncomfortable dealing. Angelus had to deal with one of those girls shortly after the bedding arrived, and he hoped at least this wasn't one of those circumstances was coming his way.

"Evening Lynn." Darkness intoned as softly as he could managing, getting a good look at her in the process. Between the smooth body forming reduced armor that was heavy in the grays, blues and blacks, the girl kinda of looked like a cross between the late Wielder Sara Pizzini, placed into the armor of Gally from Battle Angel and with a face that reminded him of Balsa of Moribito, but it was how uncanny she looked like his daughter Hope, just by the way her eyes looked at him.

"_Boy",_ he thought, _"this girl would have some cleavage on her when she got older", _a thought that he pushed from his mind as he decided to push the question to figure out more about what was going through the girl's mind.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, getting the feeling that the lack of sleep was not the only problem she was dealing with.

"I'm a little thirsty, Master Darkness." The girl spoke in a concerned voice… Now for most of the girl being called by such a formal title, meant that they wanted something or were running on the serious formality protocols that Furumizu wired into them. He didn't know if it was a personal quirk of the girl or something more serious, but he decided to let it play out until he figured out which one it was. Moving his hand over to the wall and using some of his powers that he had saved up over the last couple of weeks he produced a goblet of water. Not that the water in it was real, but the illusion and the sensory information the goblet would produce would provide the effect of there being water in it.

Given that the Other Realm was energy neutral and this place essentially froze most biological processes and slowed aging to a crawl that was probably the reason that the Thirteen had chosen this plain of existence to be their prison. No need to truck in supplies from the outside, so no chance of escape whenever the barrier was passed into or out of….that is, until Masane's little last gasp kamikaze run had succeeding in breaking the lock off of.

"Here Lynn…" Darkness gave the goblet to the girl to drink from. Though the illusion worked, including a belch from the girl. He watched her body language, deciding to ask her what was up.

"Can't sleep?"

The girl nodded.

"_Yep",_ he thought, _"Another insomnia case."_

"I can't sleep. I mean I used to like to hear stories from Nora that used to help me go to sleep, but since she has gone back to Earth-

He didn't need to hear anymore, and with a mental clearing of his throat, he tried to conjure up a good yarn to spin as he told her,

"Okay, I might not be Nora, but I'll do my best."

With that, he carried her back to her room in his arms.

* * *

Ever since one of the girls approached one of the Thirteen who stopped in on occasion to say hello and check up on things, they had no long afterwards received a metric crap ton of bedding material. Regardless why this was so, he had then soon afterwards used his powers (which seemed to affect this realm with almost creepy ease) to transform the very ground into walls, made rooms and bedchambers, and had even added a few windows at the time.

Now, as he carried Lynn back to bed and tucked her in, he felt that he needed to tell this girl a story. He wasn't sure what story to actually tell her, but after a moment he decided now might be as good a time as any to tell someone about how he and Angelus had met.

With that decision made, he sat down, and begun to recount his past.

"Long ago... before mankind walked this plain of existence, there were creatures of such great power that the only term that could fit in human language would be that of Gods." Darkness paused for effect. "Now these Gods were very powerful, they had knowledge to shape worlds, create them, reform them, and configure them for any means they desired."

"So they were like the beings that you play as in the computer game Spore."

It took Darkness a second before he realized she was making a reference to a computer game he had seen before. In fact, whenever he had seen the game being played on someone's cell phone, he had thought it be rather cheesy, but something that mortals had taken up to kill time as they played as single, and in the later levels, higher functioned organisms. But he understood the frame of reference she was aiming at, and decided to go with it as he replied,

"You might say that. As time passed, these Gods decided to create avatars of beings to work in their stead as the world of man started to take shape. The first two beings that were sent among mankind in its most primitive forms as they lived in caves were I and Lady Angelus."

As he finished that sentence, Lynn slid up in the bed some to get more comfortable against the pillow, which gave some time for Darkness to organize his thoughts for what he was going to say next.

"Given that I and Angelus were given mirroring powers, we were equal in firepower, but since our powers were in direct opposition to each other, neither of us have a decisive edge over the other. I control the darkness and shadows while Angelus controls everything in the light."

Darkness looked up into the sepia toned blue sky above the room, and gestured to it, pointing out,

"So, in a place like here in the Other Realm where there is neither full light nor complete darkness we are at equal power. But I digress; when we first encountered each other it was in the central part of the Fertile Crescent, near the border of what is present day Iraq and Iran. Now it was in those valleys where I saw Angelus for the first time…and about the only description I would have had for her at the time when I first saw her blazing form was the feeling I was looking at the purest example of beauty."

"So what did you do?" was Lynn's innocent query, which prompted Darkness to realize that this was going to get a little embarrassing.

"Well, I approached her. I was young and just discovering my hormonal urges at the time, so walking up and simply saying "Hi" took all the guts I had.", and with that he inwardly groaned, realizing what came next was where it would get really embarrassing.

"Just as I got near her, I tripped, fell down, and wound up with the tip of Angelus' blade pointed into my back." He replied, cringing slightly as he remembered the one moment of his life that would be forever immortalized in his mental _Top Ten Most Dumbassed Things I've Ever Done in Life_.

Once he got over that, he continued, somewhat shamefacedly,

"It also didn't help that my armor was in "terror that flaps in the night in pants browning way" and I was trying to impress a girl. Hell, Jake Sully in the first movie of the Avatar Series had better luck with Neytiri than I had with Angelus during our first encounter."

In response, Lynn slid up with her knees under the sheets in interest, prompting him to think:

"_Might as well make it an all out affair by pulling out full force Elves, Dwarfs, Na'vi, Orks, Dragons and anything else I can get my hands on since I got this far."_

While this thought was still percolating, Lynn broke his concentration as she said thoughtfully,

"So, she had you at the business end of her weapon, right?"

"That she did. I mean Angelus at the time was a whole lot younger than she is now. I mean, she was in her teenage years, so think Angelus being totally smaller than she is, kinda of like Yuriko with Ouka's fashion sense, but pulling Kenichi pre-ExCon days in trying to be scary."

Lynn's jaw was on the floor.

"No way…..Lady Angelus was THAT geeky?"

As she said that in disbelief, Darkness had to admit he was getting a kick out of her reactions.

"Yes, she was. Trust me, if braces had been invented at that time, she would have those things on."

Lynn was laughing now.

"You have GOT to be kidding", she managed between chuckles. After it died down, Darkness continued, humor evident in his voice.

"Yes she was, but boy was I even cheesier with my armor at the time. Heck I still had baby fat on me, so by the time we realize that we were similar creatures I am blurting out _HI_. She is mortified by the fact that she may have killed another creature. So I am being pulled up, she loses her balance too."

"Oh no. You mean she fell down on you-"

"Worse. She landed knee first on my crotch."

"Ouch."

"No kidding. But I had grabbed one of her wings in the process, returning the favor. A few minutes later, we're both laying there hurting, and she rolls off of me and we are laying there on the ground looking up at the stars. And we both caught a look at each other and finally stated our names.", and as he finished, Darkness rolled his eyes for a second, as if reliving the experience, finishing with, "You know, her name is longer than mine in the ancient language of the creator."

"Name of the creator….the ones that created you have a language?" inquired Lynn, amazed at the concept.

"Lynn, there are things older in this universe than me and Angelus. Trust me. And they have names that if I told you, your head would explode, and I do mean explode. Kevin Smith got that right in the movie Dogma."

As he finished, he popped a crick out of his neck and changed gears.

"Well, after introducing ourselves, and working through the injuries we both had dealt each other, we started talking about the stars in the sky. I lost track of the number of names we gave those stars that night, but we didn't have enough."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, dawn was coming, so we decided to get some sleep. Angelus healed up in the light, but I suffered through the daylight having my powers stripped, but then I didn't mind. I was happy just to be with her."

"So what happened after that?"

"Well, I found the nearest shade and got some rest, but I still watched Angelus. While flames formed around her body as she grew stronger, I leaned back and noticed a flower. So gathering what strength I had after healing from Angelus' impact to my pride, I started to make more of them.", and as he remembered this memory, he suddenly felt incredibly melancholic, and it showed.

Lynn watched as wondered what it would be like to be in love like that.

"Sorry Lynn... When you have lived as long as I have, memories like this feel like they come from another lifetime ago." Darkness's memories of his youth seems like something that Lynn would understand given her age, well that of being a mortal being and not some long lived semi-immortal elemental sentient essence. "Angelus and I had some great times when we were younger, but bringing her flowers was the biggest highlight of both our existences at that time." This was where it was going to get mushy. "Well with nothing better to do and this really cute and geeky girl healing under the light of the sun. I decided to start using my powers to make a field of flowers form around her to awake to. Hey, most guys want to impress a girl, but mostly going with a Mariachi band outside of a girl's window screams, I love you. But it gets a little creepy if you do the Hold the Boom box over your head and completely creep the girl out like John Cusack did in that one film." Darkness sighed. "I sort of landed between the two of those extremes of being smitten with her and being her stalker." Darkness cleared his throat. "But kneeling before her with a bouquet of flowers when she woke up and me almost being naked in dropping my armor, well... I think I scared Angelus a little, but... I was in love and you do stupid things while in love and I offered the flowers to her. She didn't know whether to take the flowers for impale me with her spear. But when she took the flowers and smelled them, she definitely liked them. She even ate one of the pedals. Something she still does whenever she has flowers brought to her. "

"Oh..." By this time, Lynn had brought her pillow in front of her and was hugging it in such a way that Darkness understood just by behavior alone that Lynn was thinking of what it would be like to be in love like that. "That is so beautiful."

"Yeah it was..." Darkness grinned at that. "Well, over the next few weeks. Know that I am using Weeks in reference here to the Lunar cycles and not Gregorian calendar here you know. But Angelus and I spent a ton of time together during that time. I mean between scaring the occasional human, some wildlife, and just being your a-typical super powered standard youth raising a little hell. I mean there was this one time where we scared the crap out of this tribe of cannibals. Man could you see them run. I don't think they ever caused anyone any trouble again." There was a pause as Darkness reminisced about his hellion days. "But boy did we have fun spending time together. I mean that wasn't even before we decided to make love for the first time and boy, talk about butterflies in the stomach."

Lynn bit her lip as she listened but was intrigued by this side of Darkness who was not all that different than her or the other redeemed souls.

"I must have been more scared about hurting Angelus, I mean; Kenichi has it a lot easier... I mean he can restrain his powers when he is with that girl he is love with. Heck there was this one time that Angelus and I were working at making love to each other.

"Now given Angelus has wings on her, she tends to flinch her wings a little when I hold on to her while we..." Darkness went white as a sheet when he realized that he was going places that this girl shouldn't know. "Oh, Crap..." Lynn was just blinking at him.

"Lord Darkness. I know that you don't want to divulge what you and Lady Angelus do in your quarters, but..." Lynn looked ashamed. "A few of us know. It isn't a secret that Lady Angelus screams your name and a few other things that bring her great pleasure." Lynn cleared her throat. "…When the two of you..." Lynn made a circle with one hand and tapped two fingers into it. The idea that this girl knew about Angelus' squeals was a bit disconcerting. That wasn't what he thought she knew about Angelus' little talent.

"Actually, the screaming, I knew that a few of the girls might have over heard just by the fact my ears were ringing afterwards. I meant that Angelus' wings tend to do this little flinch dance when we are joined at the hips."

In response, Lynn gave him a twisted look as certain somewhat unwelcome images entered her head.

"Sorry, I must have traumatized you with that image."

"Actually, the romance part was good, though you could have abbreviated some of the details."

"Especially that part about her being a heel digger, right?"

"Wait, she digs her heels into you while the two of you are joined in...", and Lynn's voice trailed off as she pondered that image. "I thought that Nora was the only one that did that with Yagi.", and as she finished, Darkness suddenly found himself feeling incredibly embarrassed.

"Yeah... listen I am sorry about talking about me and Angelus' sex life to you.", and still somewhat shamefaced, he got up to leave, but Lynn told hold of his wrist before he could.

"No, don't go just yet...I mean you feel happy talking about the good times you had with Angelus, but what about Witch Blade's birth? How did that come about?"

Darkness paused for a brief second (realizing he hadn't made as much of an ass of himself as he'd thought), and then returned to sitting on Lynn's bed after thinking about those questions for a few moments, face a mix of resignation and a bit of regret.

He sighed.

"That's a pretty rough patch of subject matter to talk about." replied Darkness said as he patted Lynn's leg. "_Boy, did this girl have calves like Sara Pizzini", _was his immediate thought as he did so, cringing as he had a Toijira-esque moment of realizing he was a pretty dirty old man.

Anyway, after a few moments of thought on how he would begin to tell the story, he cleared his throat and began.

"Things went great for a while between the two of us. I mean we were influencing mankind's development in such a way that we both liked in accordance to the consensus we had with our creator. Between the numbers of various outsiders that arrived from the sky just to muck with the planet's biological development to fit their needs since the creation of the world, we just let them be when we learned what they had planned. Mostly we just had to deal with the agrarian survivors of a dying race or two who were kind enough to leave us alone and even on a few occasions decided to ask for our help to treat one of their own who had gotten so severely injured or ill that they were unable to be healed by their powers. In those cases we aided them in exchange of their knowledge of the worlds outside of our grasp. Mostly, Angelus and I just guided mankind through some of its initial developmental stages into being fully sentient so the consensus would be happy with our results.

"Once humanity was off and going on it's own with the understanding of their place in the scheme of things: Which was no small feat given that took a bit of effort between me and Angelus teaching them to grow up a little from that infantile stage they were in to something decent enough that it wouldn't be eaten as food by us or others of the consensus." Darkness paused for a moment to grin some at some of the images of those lessons.

"Angelus tended to show off a lot back then during her lessons to the early humans. Boy did she ever show off. I mean guiding some of these hairless apes to finding the right food to make them smarter, tougher, grow taller, more fertile. There was this one time where she got the crazy idea for a century or two to take a tribe of them over near the ocean and teach them to fish. But hey, it worked to make that particular group of humans smarter." Darkness grinned at how inventive Angelus was, but Lynn looked confused at the scene Darkness was describing.

"Hey... I liked the fact that humans got better skill sets out of the deal by them fishing with their bare hands and gain a slew more ideas of what to fear and rejoice about what was in that deep blue ocean we were at.

But I did have to spend a lot of hours standing up to my ass in that damn cold bone chilling water. Though I did get a lot of fishing done while we were there and Angelus did like going skinny-dipping. I mean for someone with wings, she can fold them in tight while she swims, and boy did she look great as she came out of the water soaking wet as the water slid off of the curves of her body and feathery wings."

"Well, I have only swum in the nude once and that was on a dare by the other girls when I lived at the NSWF orphanage." Lynn's armor shifted around a few times as it moved away from her feet and hands as she added her own experience with swimming au natural. Darkness looked at her and understood that Lynn was just a youth, but given his description of Angelus' wild side to this girl was probably just something normal for her. With that he returned to his story.

"Well one day after boosting humanity's brain power by a few points. Angelus and I were walking along the beach and in a moment out of the blue she asked if I would like to be her mate." Darkness grinned a little at this scene as he replayed it in his mind.

"Yeah I know, I should have asked her. But hell it worked for Jake Sully when he and Neytiri were under that glowing tree." Lynn was gong mushy again. Yeah... this story telling stuff wasn't so bad once you got a hold of it.

"That is so cute... I love that scene where Neytiri and Jake are under that bioluminescent tree at night and she is moving along the glowing limbs and." Darkness knew that scene and winced. Boy did this girl know how to lie on the romantic love scenes. All that was missing was the scene with the Tantric Sex between those two.

Quickly Darkness interceded before the scene that he had been describing between him and Angelus was turned into a soft porn scene from a Harlequin Romance Novel.

"Well there was glowing, but mostly it was Angelus doing the Glowing..." Darkness winced at the fumble he had made. Crap... he meant Angelus glowing with her powers. Not the happy sex after glow that consisted of hormones, sweat and a few other things that were not youth appropriate for someone of Lynn's age. He cleared his throat to get the story going on track again. "Well it took more time for us to get used to spending a lot of time together, then Angelus said she was pregnant..." Lynn felt like goo as she caressed the pillow in her lap like a pregnant belly imagining what it would be like to have a child out of love and not being used as something to progress genes to another generation.

"Well by that time we were leading the humans inland to make them harder due to their time by the sea was making them soft and pudgy. Boy were they getting pudgy... But we wanted more of an edge to them and the minerals and the harder game were inland. That and Angelus wanted to rip into animal flesh as was I. I mean, the hunt the feel of blood across your claws and the joy of having a great meal and the smell of burning fire. I loved eating the hearts of the animals I killed, but Angelus had this thing for the livers and kidneys..." Darkness held off on mentioning that occasionally they did eat the occasional human from which those organs were harvested.

"As the pregnancy went on, there was a change between the two of us in how we treated each other.

"I don't know if something just came up between us, but it was as if this kid we started to see as a way to place our own influence upon. I mean we had those mortals who followed us and even obeyed us, but... Something just felt wrong and went wrong. Instead of putting away our differences, we let them grow." Darkness sighed... "No wonder when Witchblade was old enough he decided to split and hide among the mortal world. We must have topped the list as being the worst parents in all of creation." Lynn leaned forward and hugged Darkness.

Darkness could feel the warmth of the girl's body against him. There he said it, he and Angelus had fucked up raising Witchblade.

"No you are not..." Lynn said trying to hold onto the only true father she knew of. "... Yes, you made mistakes, but... Whatever happened made you wiser. I mean I watch the mortal world at times and people never get it right. I mean every couple has their spats and fights, but it makes them stronger in realizing what went wrong." Darkness decided to counter that point from his and Angelus's past experience.

"What about those couples who should have never met and are in a toxic relationship where everything they touch on both sides just falls apart."

"I do not know..." Lynn looked worried and scared. "I know that not everyone gets a happy ending, I mean I am scared. Crap... Maria is scared of hurting her sister Rihoko, I saw her kill a girl, beat her to death without a care in the mortal world only because she liked the sound of her punches across the girl's face.

"I am scared of killing, Nora wants a normal life.

"Neri... one of my sisters who have blue armor... wants to find the right guy, but only has found jerks." Lynn was crying at this time... Darkness knew of the girl.

Angelus had been riding shotgun along with Shiori and a few of the Earth bound Witchblades and their allies to ensure they had been screening the girl's boyfriends and so far the current guy had passed the test as not being a jerk.

Shiori had gotten a frantic phone call one time and barged in clad in full armor only to find the girl happy, very naked, and glowing with joy. After a squealing session that would rival a world famous rock star coming to play at the school dance of the rabid fan's high school. The two of them polished off a bottle of plumb wine and talked details of Neri's choice of boyfriends. Shiori put that taking time would be a good thing and Neri didn't fight back over that decision. Neri had wanted to hold off getting married until two summer festivals after her sister Lynn had returned. This was something Darkness knew of, but would tell Lynn later.

Letting Lynn vent her fears out now would do some good for the girl by expressing what she desired of her life ahead and how she saw his and Angelus's own personal experiences.

"Knowing that there is a chance for happiness out there doesn't mean that you should look away from it. It is something you have to work for, to find, for the darkness of despair, their needs to be hope... Lord Darkness... Angelus is your light of hope, but you are her shade so that she doesn't burn too bright and burn all she cares about." Lynn was crying harder, "Witchblade... must have wanted you and Lady Angelus to understand that you are stronger together then apart." Darkness looked sad as he came to understand the meaning of Lynn's words as he reflected on his and Angelus's own life.

"Yes we know that now... Just that we were just immature when we met and were swept up in the moment. We should have gone slower, learned that we needed find a balance. How many centuries had we lost due to our incessant fighting over the petty small things?" Darkness felt the weight of his shoulders come down harder upon him as he reached over and patted Lynn on the leg.

"How many minions, hosts, cursed rules and creations had we lost all over our desire to control and influence our child?" Darkness Exhaled hard. "Witchblade did the right thing by getting out of the preferable house when he did. I probably would have done the same thing if I had parents like me and Angelus..." Darkness leaned back and looked up at the sky of the Other Realm. "Sorry, just that I should have been telling you a story of love and go all guilt trips on you about how much I and Lady Angelus fucked things up with our offspring." Darkness fell backwards across the bed and looked up.

"Jackie... you were right... I am a jerk that needed to grow up. I mean I screwed with your life, humped your girlfriend while she was in a coma, and tried to influence your daughter Hope... Crap... no wonder our bearers revolted and took control of us." Lynn looked worried as she watched Darkness just talk about the moment that he and Angelus and had come to realize how much they had fucked up in their long existences.

"Your bearers took control over **YOU**?" was Lynn' shocked reaction, trying to figure out how the hell that would actually work.

"Yeah... It happens. This was a time in both mine and Angelus' life where our bearers had had it up to you know where with all the shit we had been pulling, so they pulled rank on, of all beings, us.", and at that statement he sat up, ruefully remembering how the power of love between parents had essentially bitch slapped himself and Angelus pretty damned fierce, and though both of them had been pretty cheesed off about at the time, they also had had a mutual moment of _"What the Hell, Hero?",_ and grew a little.

As he thought this out, he decided to lay his entire sordid history on the table for Lynn, pathetic and distasteful as it was, if for no other reason than to finally admit to someone other Angelus that he had been an asshole. And, barely a few moments after he gathered the resolve to say anything, he began.

"It all started with me doing something very pigheaded at the time. I mean over the centuries, I had hated Angelus getting in my way, screwing with my hosts, fuck she even tried to end the bloodline that I had created over the centuries by creating a vassal whose main purpose was to get pregnant with a male child and suck the life out of my host at the time." Darkness grinned. "But out of that Mess, Witchblade got a kid sister." He chuckled, and paused before turning towards Lynn. "You never fully understand the changes that occurred to all the parties involved in this part of the story so I'll give you a rundown of the players involved." So rubbing his hands together Darkness formed a ball of his own biomatter and held it up as it flattened itself down into a slate board.

"I am going to be a little drained by doing this, but you need to see the characters involved." With that he started with the descriptions of who the players in this part of the story were.

"First off let's start with Witchblade's bearer at the time, Sara Pizzini." The slate changed to reveal the face of a beautiful woman with long hair and smooth features. Lynn leaned closer to the image and her face changed to shock as she traced the image with her fingers.

"She looks a little like me." Darkness waited the girl study the image.

"Well she should, Furumizu did his homework and dug up the DNA of her family to create the modifications to your genetic code." Lynn touched her own face and traced her own features with care searching for the parts of this woman's face that she shared.

"You mean that I have some of this Sara person's DNA in me? I thought that my mother was Asian?" Darkness grinned at seeing that Lynn's inner desire to learn of her origins starting to surface with this part of the story. He continued seeing the sadness turn to curiosity about her heritage.

"Well, seventy-five percent of your current genetic code is of the Japanese stock that Furumizu used, after that about fifteen percent of your material is linked to the various blade bearers before Masane that we were able to scrounge out of Witchblade's previous bearers that he had connected with over his life, and about ten percent belongs to the adapt code Me and Angelus put in to repair the damage Furumizu's research team slipped in through their shoddy work. Most of that code that was used from Angelus was borrowed from Sayako, one of Angelus' previous hosts before we got sentence here." Lynn traced her face again.

"One of Angelus' previous bearers was Japanese and her DNA is..." Lynn was working through this bombshell that he had dropped on her.

"Yeah... But mostly I think of you like a child of Sayako and Sara." Darkness grinned at this. "Kinda of like a sister to them." Darkness paused. "Mostly I think you take after Sara's side of the family. I think Hope would have liked you, probably will if you get a chance to meet her in the future once this mess with the ExCons fully dies down."

"Wait... Hope, who's Hope?" Darkness paused at Lynn's statement and understood that he had gotten ahead of himself in this regard with all of the characters that were coming into play with this story.

"Well she is another one of the players in our little story; see Sara had a baby named Hope." The image shifted again to show a small child that looked a lot like Sara. "A child born out of a union between Jackie and Sara. This is Jackie he was my bearer at the time." The image shifted again to show a Western Male with shoulder length long hair. "Trust me, he and Witchblade hated each other's guts, but Sara kept the two of them in check." There was a long pause. "There was a few times there where I thought Witchblade was about to perform a Vasectomy without any anesthetics on the guy and poof... No more bearers that would continue the Darkness line... Now mind you this was before me and Angelus decided to re-tweak the rules on who we would allow to become our embodiments on Earth... but right now I am glad we did the change and that Kenichi and Ouka are our bearers now. I mean, if Kenichi and Ouka want their kids to have superpower then they can, if they don't then... they won't. So when they choose to retire, they... can choose who will succeed them or let us chose another worthy person to take their place. Heck the Thirteen have been doing that for years and it hasn't' hurt them." There was a pause. "I think the main reason they did that was to ensure that some heir of Julia Childs didn't get a title and fuck up the family name by nuking the royal family with his entitled powers." Lynn just looked confused at that. "Sorry, I just went over your head with the entire twentieth century cooking show reference." Lynn pondered at that concept.

"Sorry I am going off on a tangent here," Lynn shook her head in response to this.

"No. I don't mind, just it is strange when I realize just how old you and Lady Angelus are. But you were saying that your Bearer and Witchblade's bearer were in love and had a child together. Just have been strange seeing that Witchblade is your son." This was when Darkness got distant.

"Actually, I used Jackie's body to conceive Hope." Lynn looked like she was going be to be sick. "Yeah, there I said it. I fucked... No let me correct myself I Raped Sara's unconscious comatose form while using Jackie's body to Conceive Hope." This was when shame kicked in. "Angelus and I had gotten so vicious in trying to control Witchblade's life that we did unspeakable things... and I do mean unspeakable things that make my assault on Sara look tame, I mean it doesn't get any worse on the personal level than sexual assault, but me and Angelus have done our own acts of Genocide over the centuries. Sheet... Angelus is the main reason that the Mayan civilization fell." Lynn gulped at this revelation. "But that is probably why Angelus got a new bearer after the one she had, I think her name was Celeste. Well Celeste decided to go psycho nut job on Sara while she was pregnant." Darkness paused... "Dani who was Angelus' host after that was Sara's best friend and put Angelus on a short leash and told her that she would be embodiment of order, but there were rules that needed to be obeyed. I mean after centuries without being restrained... These three bearers reined us in and taught us a thing or two. There were rules that we all had to obey." Lynn looked scared.

"First off Jackie, my bearer put the rules down that his kid was off limits... I do mean off limits. He was able to overpower me, even for a time I was able to remove my influence over him, but..." Darkness exhaled... "He was like freaking Al Pacino, I try to get out and they keep pulling me back in." Darkness did in his best Italian sounding voice.

"But for my actions I deserved it. For Angelus it was no different when it came to Dani." The image on the slate changed as another woman appeared on the slate, this time with finer features than Sara's. "The three of them all had this natural balance between them all, Sara had this natural darkness, but there was Lawful neutral in that she kept the world from going out of whack. Jackie was Chaotic Good, he was born into a world of violence, but there was a code to be upheld in which criminals had to follow a code of ethics to ensure that total chaos didn't reign and lead to anarchy. And Dani, she was tempered light, knowing that there was only so much good one could do before it became corrupted, and following the adage, the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. Dani as a result saw Many of Angelus' Heralds for what they were, greedy creatures bent upon claiming her power as her own." There was a pause, "Ironically I had the same shit happen to me because of one of my minions decided to get smart and cause all sort of trouble." Lynn started to realize this was where the form of the being sitting in front of her started to become molded into the figure that she and the other girls came to love and respect.

"Lord Darkness, I didn't know that... you..." Lynn was still digesting the information before her.

"Were a father to an illegitimate incestuous child, pissed off the cosmic order of things, and really needed to be whacked over the head with conscious stick. You know a parody of an Ugly stick; well this one slammed some sense into my head." Lynn reached out and touched Darkness on the shoulder.

"You are a better person now..." Lynn spoke up as she watched Darkness unload his emotional baggage before her. "This Jackie person made you learn what it meant to be a father. So did this Dani, Angelus' bearer have any children?" The question hung in the air forcing Darkness to think much about those years where his bearers had control over him, Angelus, and Witchblade.

After a long moment Darkness started to speak, as he had to think over the question. It had been ages since he had last checked on any of Angelus' servants. He had been up to his neck in dealing with his own creations that had rebelled against him, but the thought hadn't truly crossed his mind that Angelus had any that she had cut loose, well technically any that he could name.

But offspring? Dani did have a figure and so did her love Finch... He shuddered...

What if Dani had used Angelus' powers so that she and Finch could have a child? The idea of foraging a child like Hippolyta of Themyscira had out of clay and brought it to life... Crap... that kid would be... Angelus did the math in his head... An adult... he did the math again... given the thirty years that would have passed since... he counted on his fingers since the death of Jackie... And how old Hope was when Dani and Finch became... More counting on the fingers... Wait they would be about the same age... He turned towards Lynn and looked at her.

"Lynn... listen I know I should be telling you a bed time story, but I get the feeling that this is a bit more." Lynn moved back in shock at this.

"My Lord... I merely am asking some basic questions that I have about you and Lady Angelus... I did not mean any insult or... or..." Darkness realized that she was only asking questions a layman would ask when confronted with this story.

"I do not know... Angelus has not told me of the past events and personal lives of her past bearers... I know that Ouka, and." Darkness had to think hard of the events surrounding the girl... "Wait..." Darkness raised his hand as he thought hard about several events surrounding the girl even during her stay with Angelus... "Lynn... I need to ask you a question about your sister Ouka..." Darkness paused.

"Has Ouka talked about any relationships she is in or any person that she is interested in, I just want to know." Lynn blinked a few times at this question.

"Why do you ask, my Lord?" Darkness was working through some gears in his head over some of the past bearers Angelus has had.

"Nothing, just trying to wrap my head around Angelus' taste in bearers, it might help me answer a question you asked about whether or not Dani had any children?"

"You don't know?" Lynn asked, leaning forward.

"I said I might know... just that it has been ages since that era and I am wrapping around the concept that that child like Hope might be full grown and probably a parent at this time." Lynn now understood where Darkness was going with his comments.

"So you might be a Grandfather or a Great-Great Great Grandfather now Lord Darkness..." Lynn's face lit up at that statement. "That is wonderful... I mean think of it, you and Angelus have heirs, between us... The Clone blades that are the offspring of the Witchblade, you have two entire sets of children from the other's lines. I mean there might be a Descendent of Angelus' that might be much like you. And a child that might act like Angelus when she was younger." Darkness hadn't thought about that angle of things. Maybe it was time that he patched things up with Hope's descendants; maybe they would be a better ruler over the forces of Darkness than I have been over the last few centuries. That and given the events of the current age it was probably time for new blood to take lead of things and for him and Angelus to retire to the background and deal with the grandkids... Young Rihoko was growing up and given how things might be playing out, and given her bloodline as the Next in-line bearer after Masane. Giving the girl some training of the creatures and world she was to be interacting in might be useful. That and Angelus loved the girl, heck... Every time after Angelus had viewed the girl in the mortal world Angelus seemed to be more...

Darkness stopped cold.

No wonder she wanted to seduce him into bed and make out like chipmunks in the spring.

"Lord Darkness?" Lynn looked concerned.

"Sorry, just realized that you and your sisters have brought a feeling of life back into me and Angelus' lives. That and I think that maybe it was time that me and Angelus patch some things up with some of the families of our previous bearers."

"Like Jackie's and Sara's?" Lynn was getting the point as she said that statement.

"Yeah... I think that Hope's descendants would be worthy of coming here and helping train your sisters. Maybe even Angelus' former Heralds might lend some help in soothing some things over."

"Yes I can see that, and seeing that Hope had fallen in love with one of the Male Heralds and they had a child or two from that union might allow you and Lady Angelus to spend time with your expanded family. I mean Ouka might even like talking with another counterpart or two."

"Yeah... that sounds nice..." The image of Hope married, in love with her dark armor kissing a... "Had..." Past tense... Oh Crap... Lynn had looked through the portal to the mortal world and...

"Lynn... you said that Hope had fallen in love with one of Angelus' Heralds?" The girl nodded.

"Yes she did... They had two daughters together... Aaron... the Herald is the son of Dani, who I thought was another being like herself. Not the child Angelus' vassal. And Hope who I thought was like Kenichi or one of your creations that Angelus spoke so much of to keep your vassals happy. Was your daughter?" Darkness shook the cobwebs free from his head.

"My Lord... I only put the pieces of that puzzle together right now... Had I know I would have told both you and Lady Angelus right away." the girl was bowing before him. "I am sorry for my indiscretion. I was looking through the images of the past and found a female Kenichi playing with her daughters, showing off her powers next to her Angel Husband." The girl was shaking... Darkness reached over and padded the girl on the back.

"It's okay... were they happy?" Darkness was grinning. The girl's tear streaked face nodded in confirmation.

"They were My Lord... from the images I saw, it was many many years ago." Darkness rolled his neck to knock out a kink in it and an audible crack could be heard.

"That's good."

"You can't tell how someone will turn out given the environment they were raised in." Darkness Exhaled hard. "That is probably why I and Angelus decided to take your sisters and the ExCons that could be redeemed in. Heck, that Hurly guy that was a walking tank is helping keep those younger versions of your sisters in line. I think that he is enjoying the chance to at least make some rights for his actions as an ExCons." Lynn wiped her nose to clear some of the dripping it was doing from her crying.

"Yes my Lord and I think that he would rather stay here than return to the mortal world till he puts right the wrongs he committed. That and he has this thing for watching surfing competitions." Darkness understood. In a place like this, he and Angelus had found peace. It wasn't Heaven or Hell; it was a weird cross between the two. A few of the saved ExCons had decided that they would stay, not as servants, but as equals in aiding this messed up girls get their lives back. He had even walked in on a couple of the former ExCons fornicating. But considering that was before some of the Thirteen had built some dorms that had quieted down some. Though he had heard tales of some of Nora's kinky shenanigans with Yagi. The girl must have borrowed some from Sara's handbook, but Sara tended to be more on using her powers for physical position leverage then actual massaging the pleasure during the act.

Darkness had to slap himself across the face to get rid of that thought, there was an under aged girl here next to him and the last thing he wanted was to have a boner in front of her. Shit Angelus would practically castrate him for that as he remembered how helpless how she felt like him when he saw the crimes Furumizu had committed against these girls.

"Yeah, you and your sisters have been through so much pain and suffering because of the man that stole your innocence. I mean Witchblade tended to seek out things to right in the mortal world. Sometimes getting in over his head. There have been a few times where Angelus and me had to bail him out of a few scrapes. But seeing what Furumizu had done when Witchblade was seeking out his next bearers…" Darkness looked away in shame. "I think that no parent should experience the hell we went through when we learned that out child had been violated." Lynn looked worried.

"There will be a point in your life where you will want to have children Lynn. I don't mind if you find some guy or girl to do it with, use invitro fertilization, or adopt. But when you become a parent, you will fight tooth and nail to protect them. Seeing what those scientists were doing to our child, with the poking, prodding, tearing, and drilling, we were angry... But cloning our child. That was insult to injury..." Darkness turned towards Lynn. "Lynn, you and your sisters were stolen from your mothers who had their DNA altered to match that of the bloodline of the Bearers... A Noble Bloodline, made up of Warriors, Scholars, Healers, Priests, Kings, Queens, Artisans, Adventurers, and Farmers... we saw you as innocents only after in our anger we Silenced Witchblade's tongue to prevent him from being hurt any more. The knowledge Witchblade has is such that if Mankind learned of all of his powers, the trespass committed by mankind would have been worse. In hindsight, a censoring of what knowledge Witchblade could have revealed would have been a better choice. At least you and your sisters would have gotten the guidance needed to prevent what all befell you all." Lynn looked worried. "Don't be afraid Lynn, considering that your resurrection in this realm has made us wiser and more attune to the actions we have upon the world. Trust me; I don't know who was angrier about us being thrown into this place, me or Angelus..." Darkness Exhaled before he chuckled.

"I think the Dual Kame Kame Ha was what got us thrown in here." Lynn looked perplexed.

"Sorry, a Dragonball Z reference... Kame Kame ha..." Darkness placed the edges of the palms of his hands together and did a shoving motion with his hands towards Lynn. "Yeah... a rolling flaming ball of death launched down in the city... Then afterwards being creamed across the face by Lord Migura and Edge... Good Grief..." He scoffed "Angelus did not like the idea of being grabbed by all of her limbs and thrown in this place on her ass. Me on the other hand landing on my ass wasn't so bad; it was when Angelus' behind landed on my testicles and that was what hurt worse." There was a long pause...

"Without any message of why we were tossed in here, we started to bitch at each other.

"Then fight...

"Trust me, if we had known our powers were draining away, we would have worked together to break out of here...

"That was when we started the fight from Hell..." Darkness sighed... "I don't know how long we fought, but at the end when we realized that we were unable to escape... We didn't talk for a long time." He exhaled hard.

"It was like being stuck on a desert island with someone you hate..." Darkness rolled his eyes...

"Pretty much throwing rocks at each other and calling the other names... gets boring after awhile... Trust me you haven't heard Angelus curse at you until she has done every language Mankind has had... And then... Being called Onion Breath, or Sour Rotting Fish in Camel Dung tends to get boring though the references pertaining to genitals and actions to maim foresaid area gets to be a little disturbing." Lynn chuckled at this.

"This name calling and rock throwing went on for about six months before we found the portal viewer." Darkness reached out and tapped Lynn on the foot. "Mostly it was to see what was going on outside with our former minions, then seeing Witchblade attached to Masane Amaha as she attempted to put her life back together with Reina's daughter Rihoko, it let us know our child was alright, but her fate due to the curse that we had placed upon her tore at us."

"That was when we didn't start talking to each other, mostly not knowing where to start or little less, given that we have tried to stab each other in the back so many times it just became just being in distance of the other so that we wouldn't be alone. That went on for a while." Darkness tapped Lynn's foot again to sense that he wasn't alone in the room as he started to talk.

"Imagine two of the most powerful beings in existence being stripped of their powers and placed in a prison together forced to watch the damage their actions of wrought upon those they once commanded, hated, and loved." That was when Darkness turned to look at Lynn before he started to speak again.

"Lynn, we saw the crimes that Furumizu committed against you and your sisters. He did things that even at our darkest, we would never do. Seeing that the blades that you and your sisters bear; and the damage we had programmed into them to kill their hosts. I something we deeply regret in doing."

"Lord Darkness..." Lynn spoke up... "I know that you blame yourself for the wrongs that took place against me and my sisters, but here with you and Lady Angelus, we have been happy. I know that bad things happened to us... But I am happy here being with my sisters and that you have healed our bodies from the damage Father had done through his actions that you hated, but to blame yourself for actions that occurred in the past with no way to change them. That is fate..." Lynn reached out to Darkness...

"Maybe the events had to occur for you and Lady Angelus to understand that you needed to find love, which is the most powerful thing in the cosmos... and share it with me, my sisters, Lady Masane... her daughter Rihoko, even with your charge Kenichi, who I think is kinda of cute... I am glad that he found that girl that works with the Thirteen. Though, I think she is a bit older than him, I think she likes him, given that she has been burned in the past by many older men. That and she stares at his behind in his armored form." Lynn blushed at this.

"Yeah... Kenichi asked me advice about girls lately and I have been giving him pointers."

"Yeah... you and Lady Angelus have been sneaking out and having sex in the fog valley while the girls are asleep. What is it about that place that gets you and Lady Angelus to run around without any armor on? Does it remind you of the place you two met?"

"Okay Lynn, have you and the other girls been following us to see what we have been up to and hiding after Angelus and I start doing the Dance of the Minoan Bull and female Water Serpent?"

Lynn blushed.

"Ouka caught the two of you doing this dance and listened when you two had finished that started to talk that the topic of conversation that you two had, as Ouka told me and a few of the other girls that you were thinking about maybe asking Masane to bring her daughter Rihoko here giving her a Cloneblade so that you two could do the Grandparents thing." Darkness realized that Lynn must have had superhuman lungs at her disposal given the length of that sentence she spoke without taking another breath.

"Hey... Lynn Tell your sisters that we don't watch their love lives and tell them that they are not to view me and Angelus' sex romps as entertainment and our decisions about who to give a Cloneblade to up to us...

"But yeah...

"I mean after six months of being stuck here and finding that place in the fog, I think that is our Spanish Fly. Man, that was the first time that we did it again was like a pair of mortal teenagers who were nervous as hell." Darkness paused for a moment remembering the scene. "We hated the fact that we had lost so much time with our fighting, crap... I think when we had curled up next to each other afterwards we realized how much crap we had to fix and atone for, that was before Masane showed us... Hell impressed us with her abilities as a parent and as a warrior. Despite all of the crap we had done to Witchblade, it was as if after centuries of looking, Masane was a warrior that Witchblade understood and wanted to fight alongside.

"Trust me as Masane fought your sisters who had gone made or had been brainwashed to do Furumizu's bidding, she was a forced to be reckoned with. Heck Angelus went teary eyed a few times at her fighting prowess." Darkness went teary eyed too. "Against all odds and the sheer number of foes she went against, she was a worthy bearer. Even as she was dying she chose to protect the lives of those she cared about, and thinking of destroying all of the Douji I-Weapons that were unleashed upon Tokyo. She used the last of her powers to crack the barrier between here and the Mortal realm and fell through with them.

"During this entire mess I and Angelus were able to gather all of the Cloneblades and the Neogene's within our reach and brought you all here to be healed." Darkness chuckled. "Masane was not expecting to be bought back to life ala Terminator. Though the look on her face was priceless. Hell the Look on Witchblade's face was priceless. But seeing that you were all victims of Furumizu's trespass having those the most responsible for the trespass atone for their sins and become Masane's servants."

Lynn nodded at this, adding,

"I remember being terrified after my own resurrection. Nora even went a little ballistic, pulled me and several other girls together to protect us from harm with nothing but her naked body."

Darkness grinned as his own memories came back.

"And Yagi was so petrified we'd hurt him he actually socked me.", which prompted a laugh as Darkness rubbed his chin, as if still feeling the pain, remarking "For a former skinny, unimposing former salary man, he has one hell of a right hook."

"Yes and Lady Angelus raised her hands in a peace gesture and stated that they were not going to harm us, that you two were the creators of the Witchblade and that given our past actions that we were victims by a man that had used us. That we were healed and that you were offering us a sanctuary until we were healed." Lynn spoke remembering the incident.

"Yeah, Yagi and Nora were a bit conscious about being naked, but seeing that we returned their healed blades back to them and that the sheer number we had to deal with, they kinda of understood that you were all free to go when you were ready. And that we had sent a group of envoys back to prep things back in Tokyo for your return."

"Mostly I liked having my armor back and playing with my sisters, but it was nice when the Thirteen created these rooms so that it was more normal for us." Lynn caressed the sheets of her bed. "I didn't like sleeping on the ground." Lynn pulled the pillow she had and buried her nose into it. "I missed the feel of sheets and cloth across my body."

"Yeah, I think most of the girls when you all got bed sheets and bedding slept in the nude for a week." Darkness shook that image hard from his mind.

"Yeah... One girl actually had sex with her bedding given how much she loved it." Lynn Blushed. "But no one minded, even a few of the girls who were in love with each other relished in the feel of normality." Lynn got sad, "But I miss the sun, though I won't go sunbathing in the nude like Isis when she returned to Earth and wound up with a full body sunburn her first day back. I want to go in moderation, get a shower, clothes, and have a nice bowl of ramen and talk with my sisters and their normal human friends and learn what new movies have come out and bury myself in a movie marathon with Maria and Aoi." Darkness patted Lynn's foot.

"Yeah I know these movie theaters in New York and Beverly Hills where they run some of the smaller films, so how about me and you plan a little road trip to the mortal world, and go see some of these films." Lynn grinned at this before jumping forward and hugging him.

"I would love to." Then Lynn regained her composure. "Sorry Lord Darkness... That I..." Darkness raised his hand to stop her apology.

"Lynn, consider it a gift from me to you, this is what a parent does for their children, even if they are adopted... You are part of the family now... and I don't mind being called Lord Darkness, but I wouldn't mind being called Dad..." Darkness moved in and hugged Lynn back... "This is one thing that being stuck in this place has done for me and Angelus... It has made us into parents, and I wouldn't mind being a grandparent to Rihoko and you and your sisters children." Lynn snuggled her nose into Darkness's neck.

"Thank you Dad..." Darkness had to blink a few times at this reference. But the term of endearment was there as he patted her on the back showing his acceptance of the word.

"Yeah... that works for me. How about I start working with you some and seeing how much of this world you can show me through your eyes and hopefully maybe you can show me what you see how Hope sees the world through her eyes." Lynn looked at him and nodded.

"Well now to bed, it is getting late and morning comes soon." With that he kissed Lynn on the forehead after helping her under the sheets of her bedroll.

"Thank you for the story?" Lynn was snuggling under the sheets happy and now was at peace.

Walking out the room backwards, Darkness sighed at how tiring (but enjoyable) being a father had been for Lynn. He found himself so absorbed in this that he didn't notice Angelus behind him.

"So... Hope became a mother?" she said, almost causing him to jump upwards before he relaxed, turned around, and replied,

"Yeah, and believe it or not she was married to Finch's and Dani's kid. A boy named Aaron."

Angelus had to blink a few times at this.

"Finch and Dani's child?"

"When Dani and Finch decided to pull a Hippolyta prayer with my powers, to create that child, I had no idea that.-"

"-that he would fall in love with Hope and they would have children together." finished Darkness, who smiled at the irony as he summed up the news with,

"Well, it looks like we have two or more heirs to our thrones."

"And now we have grandchildren as well." was Angelus' response, still in shock.

"Well might as well tell Witchblade that he had become an uncle now and He might want to get to know some of Hope's descendants."

Darkness looked at her thoughtfully in response, informing her,

"I think Masane was planning a trip out of the country on her next vacation, so we could get her to swing by the New York Public records library and see if she can find how many children Hope had and see if we might talk them into accepting their birthright? It might even be a good experience for her."

"Well, I would like to know what this Aaron boy was like, at any rate. Hopefully, he wasn't all that bad if Hope had fallen in love with him."

"He probably isn't, so that means if we decide to go on vacation, we can always lets our heirs take the thrones and deal with the girls." was Darkness' take on the idea and he leaned over to grope her behind.

"And go back to that valley where we met and probably renew our vows of being husband and wife and declare a truce." Angelus leaned in and kissed him in return. "Or at least very lengthy cease fire /peace treaty."

In response, he made a rose shaped from a piece of his own physical essence as he said, "You always knew how to make me happy."

Angelus' normally severe features melted into that playful look she had the first time they consummated their feelings, and he picked her up to head off to the place they had set up awhile back to periodically renew that commitment. As they reached the spot, he grinned and told her,

"Let's try not to be too loud and wake the children."

"I know, dearest…. and by the way, while you were telling Lynn bedtime stories, I was telling my devoted young disciple a few of my own…",

With that, their words trailed off as they disrobed out of their armor, and relived that first night of passion once more.

The End

* * *

I would thank RPG for helping me edit this to the point where I was able to write in his universe to his approval.

Additionally, I hope that you all spend time in reading over his Witchblade Series that I helped him edit and revise several times till we were both happy with the results.

He is planning on a complete version 2.0 version of his PA Gaiden series to add some of the material that I have placed in this story to work well in his universe. So stay tuned for More Lynn and her fellow Clonesblades ahead.

Till then place some reviews by clicking on the button below and check out some of RPG's Super Robot Wars High to have your fill of action.

I am also taking submissions for ideas for my Witchblade Universe as well so send some ideas to me when you get a chance.

Well this is Hearns signing off for now.

Till next time, Keep on writing and reading.


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